Is it worth getting a second opinion or should I buy a new laptop?

Sounds like you’d be wasting more money by getting another opinion. I trouble-shot my in-laws PC and was very thorough, kind of how it sounds like your tech friend was. I diagnosed the trouble as a motherboard problem and gave it back to them with a suggestion to replace the PC altogether. I guess they didn’t like my opinion so they got a second one at a computer repair store. Guess what – bad motherboard. Suggestion: Replace the computer. Only this time, they paid $75 for that answer, and waited two days.

Save yourself the trouble, it sounds like your guy was on the money, and if he knew enough to get that far in the diagnostics and the motherboard is involved, you have yourself a pretty pricey paperweight and a great excuse to get a new laptop!

It could be that your power adapter (the thing with the cords that you plug in the wall) is broken or blown. Try plugging in with a different power adapter. That would be an easy way to rule out an obvious probleem.

Sure, it’s possible that the motherboard died, but if the thing is only one year old, not real likely.

@elbanditoroso That’s a wise suggestion, but, unfortunately, I have already tried this. My significant other and I both have Toshiba’s so the power adapter’s work for both machines. I have tried my adapter and his adapter and there is zero change. The machine still refuses to power up.

Was it running on battery power fine when it wouldn’t charge, or did it not start/charge/do anything? As in, you noticed it stopped charging and recognizing that it was plugged in… did the computer still work though until the battery died?

It sounds like your battery is shot if that’s the case.

$40…. $20 if you get it off amazon.

@tedd Also a good suggestion, but while the battery could be part of the problem, I doubt that it is the entire reason why my laptop is not functioning properly. The laptop ran properly until the battery drained completely. So I know it is not the motherboard itself. The laptop, for all intents and purposes, should work correctly. However, if the issue were only the battery, shouldn’t the laptop be able to power when the adapter is plugged in? Because right now, it doesn’t whether the battery is inserted or not.

I wish the battery was the only issue. That’s easy to replace.

The one thing you might try before just going with another laptop is to replace the power jack. Sometimes they are a separate piece with a handy little plug that attaches to the motherboard. If so, it’s not hard to swap out.

The jack itself is cheap and it would seem as likely to fail as the board, maybe more so.

Here’s an example of instructions for swapping them out on a Toshiba. This uses a replacement part, but you could also just find a direct replacement for your model from someone like this pretty easily. They seem to be $10—$40.

That plus an hour or so might fix your problem and seems worth a shot if you’re fairly sure the basics are still working.

Sounds like you got quite a bad deal on that brand. It shouldn’t be doing all that after just one year. I’m not an expert nor knowledgable on computer tech basics so I could only make this wish for you. Hope you get a Macbook, if you can, next time. I bought an iBook and used it for 6 years straight without a single hardware or software problem. My gf has a Mac that’s been working 4 years without a hitch.

@funkdaddy That’s one of the issues that I was considering and I really, truly hope that it could be something that simple. The only problem is that I do not trust myself to replace the part. I could ask my tech friend what he thinks about the idea and whether he thinks he could feasibly perform the task since he has already taken the machine apart once. I think that he would have ruled this out though. It’s still worth asking.

@mazingerz88 As a graduate student with only a part-time job to my name, even a refurbished Macbook is out of my price range.

@muppetish No, your computer would not power on because your battery isn’t receiving any power. That’s why it’s not charging.

It sounds almost positively as though it is just your battery.

When you plug in your laptop, the power goes from WALL—> BATTERY—> LAPTOP… If your battery is broken and it’s not receiving power, which would be the most likely explanation for it not charging, then the power would never get to the laptop, even when it is plugged in.

I think what @tedd is trying to say is that it is very probable that the battery is bad. Consider this; the battery being dead would be the reason it won’t charge anymore, and you said yourself that it’s probably not the power adapter as your significant other’s wont charge it either. Does your significant other have the same size battery? Maybe try that one.

It’s a cheap (free) way to tell if it is the battery. Or just go to the store and see if they have a battery you can try. Just tell them you will buy the battery if that is the case, no need to have them look at it (and don’t give them money to have them ‘do it for you’)

@tedd and @RandomMrAdam Yes, I understand that if the battery is bad then it will not charge. But when the battery is not inserted in the laptop and the laptop is plugged into the wall outlet, the laptop should, theoretically, be capable of running off of the outlet’s power supply. However, my laptop can no longer do this. Do you know what I mean? I am assuming that if I buy a new battery, my laptop will run fine off of that battery but the laptop will be incapable of charging that battery as it is, for some reason, not recognizing or incapable of receiving, power from the outlet.

@muppetish In every lap top I’ve ever owned, if you do not have a battery in it, it will not turn on. Your laptop always gets it’s power from the battery… in essence when you plug it in you are plugging in the battery not the lap top.

It may be different on yours, but that’s my experience with 3 lap tops (two of them toshiba satellites). Plus your description doesn’t sound like anything is wrong with your hardware (computer-wise), it just sounds like you have something wrong in the charging/powering area… which immediately points to power adapter or battery.

@tedd This is news to me as I have never had any trouble running a laptop solely through an outlet, especially if one wants to preserve the longevity of a battery (and many PC users resort to doing this anyway since batteries don’t exactly have a good run in them to begin with.)